WLDN Collar Strategy
WLDN (Willdan Group, Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Engineering & Construction industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Willdan Group, Inc., including its various subsidiaries, offers a wide array of expert, technical, and advisory services, primarily concentrating its operations within the United States. The company's business activities are structured into two main divisions: Energy, and Engineering and Consulting. The Energy segment delivers a comprehensive suite of services, which includes detailed audits and assessments, the creation of strategic programs, master planning, efforts to reduce energy demand, optimization of electrical grids, benchmarking studies, engineering design, supervision of construction, performance-based contracting, installation services, innovative financing solutions, and thorough measurement and verification. This division also provides advanced software and data analytics capabilities. Concurrently, the Engineering and Consulting segment furnishes solutions related to building and safety, urban engineering, code enforcement, thorough review and inspection of development plans, disaster recovery efforts, geotechnical and earthquake engineering, urban planning and surveying, offering contract staff support, project and construction management, structural engineering, transportation and traffic system engineering, and water resource management. Additionally, this segment provides administrative services for districts, financial advisory, federal regulatory compliance assistance, and specialized communications and technology solutions.
WLDN (Willdan Group, Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Engineering & Construction, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.31B, a trailing P/E of 19.90, a beta of 1.16 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 64.67-137, average daily share volume of 363K, a public-listing history dating back to 2006, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how WLDN stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.16 places WLDN roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a collar on WLDN?
A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot.
WLDN snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $86.80, ATM IV 49.30%, IV rank 17.95%, expected move 14.13%. The collar on WLDN below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 7-day expiry.
Why this collar structure on WLDN specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed WLDN IV at 49.30% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 14.13% (roughly $12.27 on the underlying). The 7-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated WLDN expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on WLDN should anchor to the underlying notional of $86.80 per share and to the trader's directional view on WLDN stock.
WLDN collar setup
The WLDN collar below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With WLDN at $86.80 on that close, the first option leg uses a $90.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed WLDN chain at a 7-day expiry; the cross-strike IV skew is reflected directly in the per-leg values rather than approximated. Quantity sizing assumes one contract per option leg (or 100 WLDN shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $86.80 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $90.00 | $0.65 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $80.00 | $0.32 |
WLDN collar risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$8,647.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $353.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$647.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $86.47
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.546
Max profit roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium.
WLDN collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on WLDN. Each row is one sampled price point from the computed payoff curve; the full curve uses 200 price points internally before being summarized into 10 rows here.
| Underlying Price | % From Spot | P&L at Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| $0.01 | -100.0% | -$647.00 |
| $19.20 | -77.9% | -$647.00 |
| $38.39 | -55.8% | -$647.00 |
| $57.58 | -33.7% | -$647.00 |
| $76.77 | -11.6% | -$647.00 |
| $95.96 | +10.6% | +$353.00 |
| $115.16 | +32.7% | +$353.00 |
| $134.35 | +54.8% | +$353.00 |
| $153.54 | +76.9% | +$353.00 |
| $172.73 | +99.0% | +$353.00 |
When traders use collar on WLDN
Collars on WLDN hedge an existing long WLDN stock position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
WLDN thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for WLDN extends from approximately $74.53 on the downside to $99.07 on the upside. A WLDN collar hedges an existing long WLDN position with a protective put while financing the put cost via a short call; when the premiums roughly offset, the collar acts as a near-zero-cost insurance band around the current spot. Current WLDN IV rank near 17.95% sits in the lower third of its 1-year distribution, where IV often re-expands toward the mean; this favors premium-buying structures and disadvantages premium-selling structures on WLDN at 49.30%. As a Industrials name, WLDN options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to WLDN-specific events.
WLDN collar positions are structurally neutral (protective); the modeled P&L assumes European-style exercise at expiration and ignores early assignment, transaction costs, dividends paid before expiry on the stock leg (when present), and the bid-ask spread on the listed chain. WLDN positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move WLDN alongside the broader basket even when WLDN-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current WLDN chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on WLDN?
- A collar on WLDN is the collar strategy applied to WLDN (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral (protective): A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot. With WLDN stock at $86.80 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed WLDN chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are WLDN collar max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium. For the WLDN collar priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 49.30%), the computed maximum profit is $353.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$647.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a WLDN collar?
- The breakeven for the WLDN collar priced on this page is roughly $86.47 at expiration, derived from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain's premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The WLDN market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 14.13%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on WLDN?
- Collars on WLDN hedge an existing long WLDN stock position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
- How does current WLDN implied volatility affect this collar?
- WLDN ATM IV is at 49.30% with IV rank near 17.95%, which is on the low end of its 1-year range. Premium-buying structures (long call, long put, debit spreads) are relatively cheap in this regime; premium-selling structures collect less credit per unit risk.